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Late 2006: Brendan and Marc decide to write some songs together. The first song written is ‘Out of an Ancient World’…

2007: ‘Eden’, ‘The Song’ and ‘All around the World’ are written and demoed… Along with more songs that didn’t quite ‘make the cut’… By the end of the year Paul ‘Q’ Cusick is helping out with the recordings of the songs…

2008: ‘Is that what God wants’, ‘The Fallen’ and ‘Wiser’ are written and demoed (along with quite a few others)…. ‘ RIVERSEA: The Demo EP’ is recorded and released to coincide with a support slot for THE REASONING in Oct…. Paul ‘Q’ Cusick leaves the project to concentrate on his first solo album… It is decided that Cubase is the way to record the album ‘proper’ so Brendan invests in it and starts to record his keyboards…

2009: ‘Falling Stars’, ‘Freeze the Frame’ and ‘Still Home’ are written… Marc starts work in his vocals for the album… Brendan continues to record his keyboards… Adrian Jones records his guitars for ‘Falling Stars’…The album starts to take shape…

2010: ‘In the Beginning…’ written and recorded… Marc records more vocals… Brendan records more keyboards… Adam Dawson, Mark Rowen, Liam Davison and Bryan Josh record their guitar parts at Marc’s studio… Adrian Jones, Paul Cusick and Ashley Mulford record their guitar parts on the home studios… Livvy, Jan, Alex and Louise record their backing vocals at Marc’s studio… Brendan starts putting all the pieces together on Cubase with Marc travelling over whenever he can to help out with the mixing…

2011: Alex Cromarty records his drums at Sound works studios in Leeds… Ed Unitsky is commissioned to provide the artwork for the album… ‘Still Home (reprise)’ is written and recorded… More mixing is done at Brendan’s… Then the Cubase mixes are transferred over to Dave’s studio in York… Dave records his bass parts for the full album… Tony records his flute parts…

2012: In February Marc and Brendan travel to Dave’s studio for the ‘final mix day’… In March they get together for the final ‘Master’ day, then all the info is sent to the CD manufacturers and the album/artwork is all put together… in April, the CD is finally with us…

RIVERSEA’s first album OUT OF AN ANCIENT was released to the world in May 2012. Immediately afterwards Marc began work on his 4th solo album LIGHT & SHADE (released Dec 2012) and Brendan began work alongside Tony Patterson on their NORTHLANDS project…

Work began on RIVERSEA’s 2nd album in January 2014. During the next 3 years Brendan and Marc wrote and demoed 24 songs together for possible inclusion on the album. Listed below are just the evolution of just the 12 songs that ended up on the finished album…

January 2014: Brendan sends over the music for the song that would become SHINE. Marc writes and demos a vocal melody and lyric for the song and sends it back to Brendan. The song gets the thumbs up from both of them. The writing process has officially begun…

April 2014: Marc receives the music of Brendan for the song that would become FALL OUT WARNING. A rare ‘relationship lyric’ for Riversea, again the song meets with approval from both parties…

June 2014: Brendan sends through the song that would become the title track (and opener) for the album: THE TIDE. Marc writes the melody and lyric and the ‘theme’ of the album is set. The vocal recorded on the day of the ‘demo recording’ of the song (intended as just a ‘guide’ to be replaced later) ends up been the take used on the finished album…

August 2014: The piano/vocal only TO THOSE THAT ARE LEFT BEHIND was the next song written. Writing the recorded the vocal in his living room (set up, at the time, as a temporary studio) Marc is inspired by a picture on the side board of his late Father-in-law and the lyric flows out…

November 2014: Brendan sends through the music that would become UPRISING and Marc bases the lyric on the recent uprisings in Egypt and the middle east. The song soon establishes itself as the album closer…

February 2015: DROWNING IN VERTIGO is the next song co-created. Written around Brendan’s acoustic guitar, Marc decides to write a ‘story’ lyric that is open for interpretation. The song soon becomes a favourite with the pair and secures its place on the album…

May 2015: Marc receives the mood filled music for YOUR LAST DAY from Brendan. The melody and lyric takes a couple of passes to get ‘right’ but, once it does, the vocal recorded on the day of writing is again the one that ends up being the final take.

July 2015: The slightly ‘off kilter’ time signature of the tune that would become THE DESIGN was the next song to be worked on. The lyric is a call back to the lyrical themes of the first Riversea album and the song soon earned it’s place on the album…

November 2015: The music for the song that eventually become BLASPHEMY was actually written by Brendan a few months before. Marc had written a totally different lyric and a melody for it and called it ‘Stalemate’ but was never really happy with what he done. After the Paris terrorist attacks in November 2015 the lyric and melody were totally re-written to become the song it is today…

February 2016: Again inspired by real life events, this time the ongoing refugees crisis, STRANGE LAND was written and recorded. Before the lyric was even conceived Brendan had entitled his music with the place holder ‘Strangelands’ and this was the only time one of his ‘work in progress’ titles would (pretty much) remain unchanged…

September 2016: Brendan had sent Marc over the music a couple of months earlier but it was the passing of one of Marc’s ex-band mates Andy Seddon that finally cemented the lyric for GOODBYE MY FRIEND. The lyric was written the day before Andy’s funeral and became the last song written for the album…

October 2016: Brendan, Marc and bass player/sound engineer David Clements all travel to Cluny Studios in Newcastle to record the drums as performed by Alex Cromarty. The two day session goes well and the ‘band sound’ of the album falls in to place…

May 2017: Marc takes his Yamaha 16 track portable studio to the home of Olivia Sparnenn-Josh to record her vocals for the title track… Also in May Marc travels to Louise Dawson’s home to record her vocals for YOUR LAST DAY…

June 2017: Again Marc takes his studio to his sister Janine’s house to record her vocals for SHINE, THE DESIGN, GOODBYE MY FRIEND and UPRISING…

October 2017: The first of what would turn out to be 7 mixing sessions starts at David Clement’s Rec-Audio studio in York with Brendan, Marc and David all in attendance…

November 2017: Brendan discovers a previous mix he was working on that would become THE TIDE REPRISE, a last minute addition to the album. Marc re-records his vocals for the end section…

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The idea for Riversea was first formed as a song writing collaboration between Brendan Eyre and Marc Atkinson that started around the summer of 2006. Brendan, a keyboard orientated song writer, gave Marc a CD copy of his 2005 solo album and the vocalist really liked what he heard. The duo both decided it would be interesting to see what would come out of a fusion of both their individual styles. Read more...